Should the United States have attacked Israel when the Israeli military attacked the USS Liberty?

Answer 1

We shouldn't have gone to war no. I knew somebody that was on that ship and according to them the battle flag was flying on that ship when it was attacked. There was NO WAY they misidentified the target. I don't know if you've ever seen a battle flag but they are HUGE. The planes came close enough that they could be identified visually as Israeli so you KNOW they saw our battle flag. (Unlike the recent friendly fire incidents we've been involved with. We've shot our own too.) They knew exactly who they were shooting at. I don't think we should have gone to war but we certainly should have given them a military punch in the eye and a stern warning for any future events. Of course we just tucked our tail.

Answer 2

While a number of Sailors are still rather upset about that attack, and are also more that a bit skeptical of the story given us by the Israelis, going to war seems a bit extreme.

Even if we take the assumption that the Israelis attacked the Liberty to prevent it from learning something that they didn't want us to know, going to war with a country that we are so closely allied to is a major step, and would not have gone over well with the American public.

Most of the folks I know that have an opinion on the matter chalk it up to some over-zealousness and nerves on the part of the Israelis, combined with the rather natural tendency for our government to dither and debate in times of crisis.

By the time the dithering was done, it was too late to make a difference, so everyone put the best face possible on this mess and went on.

Answer 3

The Pentagon lied to the accepted public with reference to the attack on the liberty from the very beginning up. In a decision in my view authorized by using the loathsome McNamara, the Pentagon denied to the clicking that the liberty became into an intelligence deliver, relating it as a exchange as a Technical learn deliver, as though it have been little extra beneficial than a protection rigidity version of Jacques Cousteau's Calypso. the protection rigidity press corps on the united statesunited states of america, the place many of the wounded sailors have been taken, have been placed decrease than severe regulations. each and every of the memories filed from the service have been first routed in the direction of the Pentagon for risk-free practices clearance, objectionable cloth became into bumped off with rather a bleat of protest from the newshounds or their courses. the completed grotesque affair became into lined up. Israel is the main important enemy the united statesA. has, yet too many can no longer have faith it, as a results of fact they are blind.

Answer 4

Attacking would've gone to far, but honestly, it would've been a good idea to make a very public inquiry into the matter, to embarrass the Israelis.

Honestly, how many of our allies can get away with attacking one of our intelligence gathering ships with nothing more then a slap on the wrist?

Answer 5

What? And get our asses kicked? You have got to be kidding.

When we launched jet fighters from our carriers to help in the area, Johnson recalled them all as he did not want to get into a fight with Israel. It would have been too embarrassing getting waxed.

Remember, just days before, Israel wiped out all of the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian Air Forces in less than 24 hours. Johnson did not want to join them in their defeat so he recalled the fighters and left the USS Liberty to save itself.

Answer 6

sure, and Iran when they hit that destroyer with the missile, China when that fighter collided with our plane, when Gary Powers' U-2 got shot down, with Japan when our sub hit that fishing boat, North Korea (again) with that USS Pueblo incident. Couldn't we just attack France instead?

Answer 7

We were pretty pissed off as I recall but Israel did the grovel and I'm sorry dance and paid up for the damage, so we forgave them.

A very suspicious event.

Did you see the pix of the Liberty? Israel pilots should teach marksmanship to the US pilots, I'll say that much.

Answer 8

It is irrational to go to war over a friendly fire incident.

And yes, it was a friendly fire incident. Six investigations on both sides concluded that.

Answer 9

Should the British have declared war on the USA when we killed their soldiers, a half dozen times, in friendly fire incidents? It's the same thing.

To answer your question, no.

Answer 10

Another troll anti-Semitic question about an event that happened before the poster of the question was out of diapers!!